Bloomberg May Turn Itself Into CNN

Tired of years of losing out to CNBC in the ratings Bloomberg is apparently considering rebranding
itself as a general news network a la CNN.

Bloomberg
Television has struggled to stand out since its inception in
1994. Recently it has replaced staid graphics, refashioned its
schedule, taken out ads in New York for its morning anchors,
Margaret Brennan and Betty Liu, and
battled for better distribution. (It is available in about 60
million homes.) Over time, the network may reorient itself toward
more general news, a bit more like CNN.

Goodness knows we all need a little more CNN in our
lives.

The challenge, as Stelter points out, is that there may simply
not be a need for 3 financial networks, which is not to say Fox
Business isn't kicking along.

Through the first two weeks of August, CNBC, a unit of NBC Universal, had on average 378,000 at-home
viewers during the New York market hours of 9:30 a.m. and 4 p.m.,
up sharply from 224,000 in July.

Fox Business, a unit of the News Corporation, had an average of
107,000 viewers at those hours, up from 76,000 in July. Bloomberg
Television is not publicly rated; private ratings indicate that
it too had a surge in recent weeks, though its audience is
smaller than that of Fox Business.

Of course, they have the benefit of the free advertising provided
to them by Fox News mentions and guest spots.

Update:
Via TVNewser comes this statement from Bloomberg denying they
have any intention of changing anything.

"We are a business and financial news network,” [head of U.S.
television] Andrew Morse said.” It’s our mission
to be the best business and financial news network in the world.
Despite speculation to the contrary, we are laser-focused
on what we do best.”